Debut Recording Artist of the Year: pianists Yefim Bronfman, Evgeny Kissin and Melvyn Tan; soprano Ute Lemper; and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

There also will be awards in the categories of orchestral music, opera, concertos, chamber music, instrumental solos, vocal solos, vocal reissues, non-vocal reissues, contemporary, crossover, and production and engineering.

A HEROIC COMEBACK Tenor Jose Carreras, who had quit performing to wage a two-year battle against cancer, has returned to the stage-and his comeback concert will be available on home video Sept. 19.

The recital, at Peralada Castle in Spain, received rave reviews, with the London Times reporting that Carreras` ``voice has been miraculously preserved . . . it is full and resonant with that distinctive Carreras sound unchanged from its old self.``

After the recital, which is available on the Kultur label, Carreras said: ``I always thought that one day I would recover, and that I would be able to sing again. This hope was always with me.``

CULTURE`S HOT IN . . . CLEVELAND? A feast of new drama, opera and orchestral music will sweep into Cleveland Oct. 8 through 15.

The marathon will feature the world premiere of ``Holy Blood and Crescent Moon,`` an opera by Stewart Copeland, former drummer of the rock band Police. The piece bows at the Cleveland Opera.

Also: the world premiere of a dramatic trilogy by Reynolds Price-``August Snow,`` ``Night Dance`` and ``Better Days``-at the Cleveland Play House;

American premiere of a Cello Concerto by Peter Maxwell Davies, performed on the subscription concerts of the Cleveland Orchestra; and world premiere of a new play by Beddow Hatch, ``Stem of a Briar,`` at the Bolton Theatre of the Cleveland Play House.

PLAYWRIGHTS UNITE The Dramatists Guild has drafted a contract for its members to use when their plays are produced by playhouses associated with the League of Resident Theaters (LORT).

The move is important because, until now, no standard contract existed-theaters negotiated separately with each playwright. Over the past year-and-a-half, the guild has asked the league to negotiate a standard

contract, but the league has declined, said guild president Peter Stone in the New York Times.

A GIFT OF $15 MILLION The National Endowment for the Humanities has announced grants totaling more than $15 million ``for projects to preserve books, newspapers, monographs, photographs, videotapes and other resources for scholarly research.``

Three Chicago institutions are among the awardees:

- Field Museum of Natural History, with $113,018 in an outright grant and $71,117 in a matching grant, both ``to support the preservation of the museum`s photographic collection.``

- University of Chicago, with a $262,650 grant for ``the microfilming of 4,000 brittle volumes from the South Asian collections.``

- Society of American Archivists, receiving $50,000 ``to support a systematic evaluation of the preservation program offered by the society.``

The soprano reportedly was upset about slights she had received from Met management.

Nevertheless, she ``will definitely fulfill her other U.S. commitments this season,`` according to her management, ``which include seven performances of Puccini`s `Tosca` with Lyric Opera of Chicago.`` Tenor Luciano Pavarotti cancelled his ``Tosca`` appearances at Lyric earlier this week.